[size=18pt]Nigeria Has 74m Poor People -Kpakol[/size]

CALABAR ––Dr. Magnus Kpakol, National Coordinator of the National Poverty Eradication Programme(NAPEP), has said 74 million Nigerians are poor.


He said the figure, which was as at December 2008, dropped by one million from the 75 million in 2007.


He made this known in a paper titled, “NAPEP Programmes As Enabler For Rapid Economic Development In The South South Region,” presented at the just-concluded South South Economic Summit in Calabar.


He said the population of the country’s poor was 80 million in 1999.


Kpakol, a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Poverty Alleviation, said that the poverty prevalence was more in the northern part of the country.


According to him, the poverty rate in North West geo-political zone was 72.2 per cent of its population while in North East, it is 71.2 per cent of the population.


“The percentage is 67 of the population in North Central,” he added and disclosed that the South East has the lowest poor population of 26.7 per cent.


“The zone is followed by South South where the poor constitutes 35.1 per cent of its population and South West with 43.1 per cent,’’ he said.


The NAPEP Coordinator attributed the poverty index in the country to weak local economy and said that the poverty rate would reduce “when we have rule of law and good governance.”


Other factors that would also elevate people from the poverty stratum include, “strong and high quality development growth and mass participation in economic development,” he added.


He challenged local government councils to commit N1 million into micro lending in each community in their areas.


Kpakol stated that the reduction of the size of the poor population from 80 million in 1999 to 74 million in 2009 was due to various poverty alleviation programmes embarked by various governments.


He charged states and local governments in the South South to evolve a common poverty reduction programme.

http://www.nigerianobservernews.com/28042009/news/othernews2.html

That's a very high figure.

Especially if the total population is in the range of 140 million as we've been told.

tpiah:

That's a very high figure.

Especially if the total population is in the range of 140 million as we've been told.

tpia how many people would you consider rich in naija my sister? and what is being rich by the way?

i think that figure is about right.

JJYOU:

tpia how many people would you consider rich in naija my sister? and what is being rich by the way?

i think that figure is about right.

of course the figures are probably right.

I'm just saying Nigeria has a very high poverty rate. That's over half the population who are extremely poor.

it depend on what he mean by poor. Maybe he meant to say those who have at least one square meal a day.

At any rate, in anation where data are never taken or kept if taken, the whole thing is just assumption.


I wont take that man serious.

This is the same man who said at a time that over 75% of Nigerian youths are unemployed,,a country that does not have an idea of what her population figure is,,,how do you determine the poor from the rich?
By any standard,,Nigerias population is about 200Million,,,and I strongly believe that more than half of the population does not have earning capabilty.

What was the yardstick for determining poor people?

JustGood:

What was the yardstick for determining poor people?

yes and what was the yardstick for measuring rich ones?like my friend will say,internationally,you are not rich untill you have 1million usd in savings account.so i think the correct yardstick for measurement would have been HOW MANY PERSONS LIVING BELOW THE POVERTY LINE